Second Chances
by T.L. Wilson
Summary: Bella is a homeless teenager.  Plagued by nightmares of her mother's death she falls into the hands of a very mean, very beautiful guy who can either help her or finish what was started 7 years before.
1. Chapter 1

**Second Chances**

**Chapter 1**

The bell on the library door rang as Bella walked inside. "We close in 15 minutes." the stocky woman said without looking up from her paper. "I know, I only need a minute. Can you tell me where the city map is?" The woman finally looked up and gave Bella a long look. Finally, she directed her to the hallway on the right. "Through those glass doors."

As she walked down the hallway she noticed all of the different posters depicting authors from the past. She stopped in front of Walt Whitman and briefly thought about stealing it off of the wall but when she looked back at the front desk, the woman was staring at her. She found the map she was looking for and it took her a good ten minutes to find the Forks City Cemetery. _'Main and Columbia...shouldn't be too hard to find' _she thought. As she turned around to walk back out the doors, she glanced briefly at the poster of Whitman again.

"Hey, do you have those posters for sale?" She asked as she walked back to the counter.

The woman gave a very curt "No." followed by a "We're closed now." and turned around and walked away.

Having noticed the exit at the end of the hallway, she walked back through the glass doors, ripped the poster off the wall and shoved a $5 bill under a thumb tack in its place. The woman still hadn't returned to her desk so apparently she had never noticed.

As Bella was walking along the street, she rolled up her poster but had nothing to secure it with. She took the rubber band off of her wrist, the same rubber band that she used to help herself through a panic attack, and wrapped it tightly around the poster. She still had nightmares about that night and she had long ran out of Ativan. She didn't want to think about it now. Not after seven long years of the same nightmare night after night. Everyone in town thought she was crazy because she avoided all human contact. Truth was, if they knew the truth, they would have had her committed already. She didn't want to get close to people because in the end, they all left. Everyone always felt sorry for her but she didn't want their pity. She wanted a warm bed, a hot shower, and good food. Knowing she was Chief Swan's daughter, no one was willing to offer her anything.

Bella huddled inside of her faded hoodie from the cold fall winds. She could still smell the afternoon shower in the air and thought she could feel a storm coming back. _'Great' _she thought as she made her way quietly to the cemetery. She didn't know why she decided to go tonight and why she couldn't wait until the sun came up and it would be easier to find the tombstone. _'I am my father's daughter.'_ Patience definitely wasn't a virtue in most areas. But alas, her feet kept moving one in front of the other until she took a right on Main and looked both ways before crossing the street. It was futile because no one was out this late at night, at least not to come to the cemetery.

When she got up to the gate, she gave it a solid tug but it was chained and locked. "Damn. Guess I'll have to climb over." She looked up and down and thought it would be simple enough. She shoved the poster through to the other side and stuck one foot up onto the stone ledge. With one hard push off, she was up and straddling the iron fence. As she brought her other leg over to drop down, she snagged her sleeve on a piece of broken iron. With a loud rip ringing in her ears, she landed on the ground, snatched up her poster, gave a look around and started walking straight ahead. There was a path and maybe, it would be alphabetized. It was a very old and very creepy cemetery. Refusing the obvious signs that the cemetery might not want her in there, she was starting to think that maybe not coming with a flash light was not such a good idea.

Something cut across her path making her stumble on her own feet. She grabbed hold of the side of a mausoleum that was strangely out of place and tried to calm herself down. As she leaned against the cold stone, she heard a scuttling noise around the side and whatever was causing it pressed itself against her legs. She let out a loud yelp and tripped over her own clumsiness out into the moon light. What she saw surprised her. Five little black and white kittens. "Awwww" she couldn't help it. She was a sucker for cuteness. Feeling stupid for being such a pansy, she sat down and started petting the little furry critters. The mother cat came around the corner then and pressed itself into her hands before laying down with her kittens. "So you're the one that tripped me." she thought not even trying to acknowledge the fact that she was a total wuss and the cat had made her scream like a little girl.

She sat there for a few more minutes and couldn't help but starting to feel a little paranoid. Like something was watching her. She looked up as if being compelled and saw two very glowing, golden eyes staring at her from the other side of a door on the tomb. It whispered one word before the door opened beckoning her inside. "Bella" was all she heard so very softly before darkness came in all around her and she passed out.

**A/N This is my second attempt at writing. I always have a story playing in my head but I've never written it down before. I plan on finishing this one and hopefully, some time in the future, I'll finish the one I started. Please tell me what you think and REVIEW! Thanks! :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**Second Chances**

**Chapter 2**

She woke up to the sound of purring and soft fur brushing against her face. The sun was just starting to come up and she was cold. Bella sat up and stretched the stiffness from her muscles. As she looked around, she noticed that she was no longer in front of the mausoleum. She was sitting in front of her mother's tombstone.

"How the hell did I get here?" she said out loud to the kitten that had crawled into her lap. "And how did you get here you furry little thing?" She looked around but she didn't see the other kittens. "That's strange."

She noticed that there were fresh flowers lying on the ground in front of her. _'Someone has been here'_ she thought. She sat there staring at the words etched into the cold granite and was unable to stop the sob that left her throat as the tears fell uncontrollably down her cheeks.

**HERE LIES RENE SWAN**

**BELOVED WIFE, LOVING MOTHER**

**June 13, 1972 to October 1, 2004**

It had been almost seven years since she had lost her mom and it still hurt so much. She sat there leaning against the cold stone lost in thought and after a long while she remembered the night before. The golden eyes. She got up, grabbed the kitten, and started walking toward the direction she thought she might have come from. As she looked down to unzip her jacket to put the cold kitten inside in hopes of warming him up, she noticed that the jacket she was wearing was no longer her own. This one was brand new and a dark blue in color whereas her's had been a faded black and quite used. And there was no rip in the sleeve.

Unnerved by the fact that she had seen those eyes, saw the door opening, hearing her name being called, beckoning her inside, and then waking up in front of a tomb that she clearly didn't find herself and on top of that she wasn't wearing her own jacket? She was scared.

She kept walking and the only building she saw was up on her left. As she got closer she saw that it was definitely the same one she saw the night before. Only, there was no door. _'Okay'_ she thought, _'maybe its on the other side.'_ But as she walked around all four sides, she saw no door. And no possible door. It was sealed up like the tomb it was. "What the hell? I know I'm not crazy." She looked around to see if there were any other buildings but she only saw tombstones and statues.

"Hey girl. What are you doing here?" She heard in a rough voice. She turned around to see who could only be labeled as the care taker, standing there giving her a questioning look.

"Isn't there a door to this place?" She asked the old man.

"What? No, that place has been sealed up for over 300 years."

She looked back at the stone structure wondering if she really was going crazy. She knew what she saw but the man was right. There was no door. She decided to ask about the flowers.

"Hey, do you know who put those flowers on the Swan grave?"

He gave her a long hard look. "Swan?" he asked.

"Yeah, Renee Swan. Can you tell me who put the flowers there?"

Stone cold eyes looked back at her. "Yeah. Me."

She stood there with her mouth gaped open. He turned around to walk away but she went after him.

"Why?" she asked, a little too loudly.

"Because no one has been to that grave in years. And because I knew her." That shocked her.

"How did you know my mom? I don't even know who you are!" she said as she tried to look at him a little closer. He wasn't as old as she had originally thought. A few wrinkles around his eyes, salt and pepper hair. Tan skin from working out in the sun for too long. He looked like he had had a rough life.

"No. But I know who you are and you shouldn't be spending the night in grave yards."

"How did you know that?"

"I heard you scream. When I checked on you, you were asleep."

"Did you move me?"

"No."

He was walking away but without looking at her, he called back over his shoulder.

"Best come along if you're hungry and I'll see what I can get for the kitten."

"How did you know my mom?" But he didn't look back and he didn't answer.

They had gotten to the Gator that he kept his tools in. He sat down motioning for her to take the seat next to his and he drove them back towards where she had walked from. They were coming up on the woods to a worn trail through the trees and after a few minutes he drove them through to a clearing. Bella could hear water somewhere in the distance but all she saw through the tall grass was a big, beautiful white house with perfectly aligned evergreens on three sides of it. When they got around to the front, she saw that the house was three stories tall and it had a wrap around porch decorated with potted plants, hanging ferns, and white rocking chairs.

"It's beautiful" she breathed out.

He pulled them up to a four car garage and got out.

"Help me with these." He said as he grabbed a bucket full of soil and a shovel.

She followed him into a side door on the garage with two buckets of her own and set them down. Through another door in front of her, she saw several cars under canvas covers.

"Put them over here." he said as he headed back out the door they came in and walked toward a door on the side of the house.

She followed him into what she saw was a mud room outside of the kitchen. She was immediately assaulted with the smells of frying eggs, apple-wood bacon, pancakes, and biscuits. Her mouth watered and her stomach growled.

"Have a seat. Want some coffee?" He asked pointing to a table on the far side of the kitchen.

"Black please."

She sat down and pulled the kitten out of her jacket.

"Do you have any milk for the fur-ball?" She asked and that's when she remembered her her poster.

"Oh crap! You didn't see my poster around anywhere did you?"

"Walt Whitman? He's on the dinner table."

"The dinner table?"

He pointed to the door in front of her as he bent down and put a bowl of warm milk in front of the kitten.

She got up and walked through the door to see a long oval table, made of dark colored wood and wider in the middle than on the ends. There were eight chairs on each side and one on each end. When she got closer to the table she saw that carved into the middle was the Cullen family crest. And next to that was her poster and torn hoodie.

She picked up her things and walked back into the kitchen just in time to see him set down a plate of food and a steaming cup of black coffee. She sat quietly and ate her food while the kitten played with her shoe strings.

"I'm gonna have to name him soon if I'm gonna keep him." But nothing came to her mind and the strange man didn't say anything.

"Do you have a bathroom that I can use?"

"Up the stairs to the second floor. First door on your right. If you want to take a shower, just put your clothes outside the door and I'll have them washed."

She didn't ask any questions as she walked out of the kitchen and to the foyer on her right. On her left was a staircase and in front of her was a living room. The floors and the front door were made out of the same dark wood as the dining room table. There were other doors around but they were all closed. She took a left and headed up the stairs to the first door on her right.

She stopped briefly at the top of the stairs and thought that she heard classical music coming from the third floor. Bella walked into the bathroom and after closing the door behind her, she immediately began disrobing. Holding a thick towel around her body, she stuck her head out of the door and looked around but didn't see anyone before dropping her clothes into a pile on the floor. Bella closed the bathroom door again miffed at the fact that she still didn't know who this man was or how he knew her or her mom. She started the shower to let it warm up.

Taking a look around, she noticed that one whole wall was covered in a floor to ceiling mirror and where the counter met the mirror, was two sinks the color of frosted glass sitting on top of a black marble counter. The walls and the floor were colored in the same cream color and the shag rug beneath her toes was the same color as the walls. The shower and separate jacuzzi tub were the same black marble as the counter top.

Bella stepped back into the shower closing the glass door behind her. She stepped under the water streaming down and immediately felt her sore muscles begin to relax. She wet her hair and picked up a spa worthy shampoo bottle. The contents smelled like lemongrass and cardamom. It smelled like heaven. She lathered her hair twice to get all the dirt and oil out before picking up the conditioner and repeating. The body wash that she found smelled like a man's cologne but she didn't care. There was a travel pack of razors and Bella used two of them to shave off the 6 months of hair growth on her legs. Being homeless had its disadvantages but it was better than being stuck in the system, bouncing around from foster home to foster home.

Bella rinsed off the remainder of the soap and feeling like a new person, she stepped out of her little moment of heaven. She found a hair brush and a new tooth brush laying next to a soft bathrobe that she hadn't noticed before. _'Weird. I didn't hear anybody come in.' _she thought as she brushed the tangles out of her hair and cleaned the scuzz off her teeth. Looking at herself in the mirror, and seeing her chestnut colored hair fall down below her waist, she decided that she was long over due for a hair cut.

As she was tying the robe around her waist, she heard muffled footsteps above her. She poked her head out of the bathroom door and heard them again. 'That is definitely classical music.' Bella padded softly over to the bottom of the stairs and slowly began to walk up. When she got to the top of the third floor she looked to her left noticing a beautiful bathroom with no door but to her right was where the music was coming from. As she walked through the door way, she saw a wall full of windows taking up two sides of the bedroom and in the center was a rot iron bed with a gold coverlet. Behind the bed on the wall was a very expensive looking stereo system.

Bella heard a low angry growl from over her right shoulder and as she turned around, she peered into a pair of angry, glowing, golden eyes. Blackness consumed her and she felt the world slip away once again.

**A/N So here's the second chapter. It's been edited but I still feel it's too short. Funny thing is, it's the longest one I've written so far. Okay so maybe not so funny. I'll try to have the third chapter up soon. Have a great week! :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Bella woke up once more to something furry and purring pressing against her face. As she opened her eyes, she slowly looked around and noticed that it was now dark outside. To her left was a slated fireplace surrouned by floor to ceiling, two story high windows covered in sheer fabric. Above the fireplace was the same coat of arms that she saw on the table in the dining room. Bella had somehow made it back to the first floor and she was still wearing the bathrobe.

"Are you feeling better?" Asked the old man as he sat a tray of what she assumed was food on a table behind her.

"I've apparently made it a habit to pass out now." She tried to joke but it came out laced with a slight bit of panic. It was unlike her to be so affected by, well, pretty much anything. "Hey, I need to change...are my clothes ready?"

"Yes, I'll walk with you to the bathroom."

As they walked up the stairs to the second floor, right before she turned to walk into the bathroom, she noticed that the music was no longer playing.

"What's your name? I've passed out twice and frankly, I'm a little freaked out about that but..."

"Peter. Now hurry before your food gets colder." He said with a slightly amused grin. If only she knew why she was really there.

He waited outside of the bathroom while she changed. She noticed that there was a name written on the inside of the hoodie. "Cullen. Weird." Bella walked back out and he led her down the steps and back into the living room. More like a family room because there was no TV. Just shelf upon shelf, floor to ceiling, of books. A whole lot of books. It was cozy in here. She could see herself curling up on the leather couch with a warm blanket and reading by firelight. She sat down at the table and began eating the now cold chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwich. Bella wondered if, after dinner, she was going to be homeless once more. It was cold outside and she hoped that maybe Peter would let her at least stay the night. Instead of asking about a place to sleep, she decided to ask about the hoodie.

"You were wearing it when I found you. I found your other, along with the poster and the very cold, very hungry kitten in front of that tomb."

"Wait...I was already moved when you found me?" This didn't make sense. How could she have moved if Peter wasn't the one that did it. And Bella didn't remember actually being moved at all. Everything was black. She couldn't even remember why she had been so hell bent on finding her mother's tombstone at night to begin with. She just knew she had to. But she was thankful nothing bad had happened to her. At least, not bad in the sense of violence and violation.

Peter didn't answer. That made Bella curious. Did he know something?

As she sat there eating in silence, her cold food now even colder, she contemplated what everything meant. Nothing added up. She let out a yelp and almost fell out of her chair when Peter finally spoke. He froze mid words to let her catch her breath. He gave or an annoyed look and repeated what he said.

"You can stay here tonight. I have a bed made up for you. And I shouldn't have to remind you to stay off of the third floor, it's obviously off limits."

Giving up on her soggy sandwich and coagulated soup, she let him lead her to a closed door that was on the second floor and at the end of the right hallway, on the left. She closed the door behind herself and laid the kitten down on the bed. The room was beautiful. Neutral colors with floor to ceiling windows covering the entire front and right walls. The scenery outside would have been gorgeous if she would've been able to see it. In the center of the room was a four poster bed done in creams and whites, matching the floor and wall behind it. There were no pictures, nothing personal, to make her believe that the room had been used at all. But carved on each of the posters was a different kind of flower. Rose being one, daffodile being another and then two that she couldn't identify. Maybe a lotus...she wasn't sure. To her left were two doors. The first one, being the closest to her, was the bathroom. It was done in the same colors of the bedroom but otherwise matched the hall bath exactly. The other door, to her surprise, was a huge walkin closet filled with both mens clothes on one side and womens on the other. They looked like they hadn't been touched in years. Even outdated a little. The closet was divided in the middle by a cedar island with shallow drawers on each side and a cushioned bench on the other by the shoe rack. "Who lives here? Or used to live here, rather." Good question indeed. Bella doubted she'd ever find out. It wasn't none of her business afterall. She was only a guest. If that. She figured Peter felt obligated since it was obvious she wasn't missing and definitely not needed elsewheres any time soon.

Bella walked back out of the closet and after closing the door behind herself, she changed out of everything except for her t-shirt. After pulling back the covers and situating both herself and her new kitten, she laid there staring out of the windows to her right. She could see trees swaying in the breeze. And if she was quiet enough, she could even hear crickets chirping and a stream flowing by. Yes, Bella thought. Absolutely beautiful. Bella didn't think she'd be falling asleep any time soon but found her eye lids drooping ever so slowly until she was certain that she could no longer keep them open.

At some point Bella had fallen asleep, and not knowing when, she wasn't sure exactly what time it was when she jolted herself awake. "Stupid dream. Always making me feel like I'm falling off a building." She laid down and fell back to sleep almost immediately. She began dreaming that she was back in the cemetery. Bella was standing alone in the dark and she could feel eyes on her. Somewhere behind her she heard that same low, angry growl. She started to run toward her mothers grave but the harder she ran, the slower she became. It was like trying to walk through wet cement. Finally, she saw a familiar tombstone up ahead and Bella could see someone sitting on top of it. A familiar female voice was calling out to her and as she got closer, she could see that it was her mother, sitting there smiling at her. Bella began screaming at her mother to run but it was if she couldn't hear her. When she finally got to her mom, she ran into her arms completely out of breath and scared out of her mind. Her mother was laughing at something behind her left shoulder but before Bella could turn around, she felt hot breath pouring down her back in waves. When she finally resolved to turn herself around, two glowing golden eyes were staring back at her. Bella couldn't make herself look away. She couldn't make her voice work or he feet move. She was stuck. And she couldn't see anything except for those eyes. Nothing else existed and she knew they would be the last thing she ever saw again. Somewhere behind her, her mother laughed again and began speaking in a strange tongue to the beast before her. But when Bella turned around, she was gone.

Bella woke with a start. With light filtering in through the two walls of windows, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and noticed that her t-shirt and the sheet underneath her had been soaked through with her sweat, the kitten laid curled up next to her on a pillow, completely undisturbed by Bella's nightmare.

She was exhausted. Never before in her short life had she ever felt so scared, so helpless, and so alone. She closed her eyes hoping that she could go back to sleep but a knock at the door and then a voice behind it told her otherwise. Bella sat up and waited for Peter to come in.

"I thought that maybe you could help me around the cemetery today. Geez, you look horrible. Did you sleep at all?" He asked with a worried tone.

"No. Bad dream. Yeah, I'd like to help."

"If you're too tired I can do it by myself."

"No, I want to. Just give me a few minutes and I'll meet you downstairs."

Not sure whether to believe her or not, Peter nodded his head and closed the door behind himself as he made his way down the hall and into the kitchen to fix her breakfast.

Ten minutes later, Bella had made her way into the kitchen and was absolutely starving. Seeing the clock on the stove proudly displaying 8:30, she couldn't believe she had even slept that long, and whatever it was, it didn't qualify as sleep.

"Oh, I'm sorry I forgot to tell you. There's fresh clothes for ya in the bathroom upstairs. Meet me in the garage in a few and we'll get to work." He said as he walked out the back door and toward the direction of the garage.

Alone once again, Bella ate her breakfast in silence. She couldn't help but wonder why she was still here. Why had Peter asked her to stay. He seemed to be alone in this big house so maybe he needed company was all. Whateve it was, she didn't want to seem like a free loader or like she was expecting anything at all.

She hopped up, and after pouring the rest of her milk in to a bowl for the kitten, she placed the rest of her dishes in the sink and walked to the bathroom to change clothes and face the rest of her day of working in the cemetery with Peter.

After Peter loaded up several buckets of the soil she had seen the day before, along with gloves, and several types of garden tools, they hoped into the Gator and took off into the direction of the cemetery. As they were rounding the side of the house, Bella looked up and noticed that the third floor windows were opened slightly but what startled her was the fact that she saw, or thought she saw, a ghostly figure standing there one second but gone by the time she blinked. She looked over at Peter wondering if he saw it too but decided not to bother him about it. She was exhausted and probably didn't see anything at all. Crazy, tired Bella was losing her crazy, tired mind.

The day was long and Bella had seen more than enough weeds and dead flowers than she could handle. Lunch was eaten under an awning as her and Peter watched two grave diggers digging a new hole and putting up a canopy and several chairs, getting ready for a funeral. Shortly after lunch ended, it started to rain and Peter decided they should head on in because it didn't look like it was letting up any time soon.

When they got back to the house after unloading their supplies for the day, she asked if she could take a nap. As she walked up the stairs, she could smell spice and sandalwood. The higher up she went, the stronger the scent became. Bella stopped at the second floor landing and something compelled her to look up. What she saw scared the crap out of her. A ghostly man with black eyes. He was in a defensive position and she couldn't figure out why but she felt like she was in a grave amount of danger if she didn't run away as fast as she could. When she turned around to run towards her bedroom, she heard an angry growl and heard footsteps falling in behind her. She got within feet of her door before he descended from somewhere up above her and stood between her and the door. Peter came running up the steps shouting at whatever it was standing there to leave her alone. He came around her and stood in between her and the angry beast. The beast was not happy about this. The beast wanted the girl and the man was in the way. He slammed Peter to the side to lunge for the girl but Peter was fast for his age and knocked Bella out of the way. Bella stood there frozen, unable to comprehend what was going on before her. At some point, she knew Peter had gotten hurt and she was backed into a corner with the man once again blocking her bedroom door from her path. Bella closed her eyes and began praying softly hoping that it would all go away. The last thing she remembered was claw like fingers digging into her sides as she was lifted onto the beasts shoulder and then he was running with her up the stairs and on to the third floor.


End file.
